ArticleZoonoses and public health2023
Infrequent intrahousehold transmission of Clostridioides difficile between pet owners and their pets.
Article in Zoonoses and public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quantifying antimicrobial resistance in food-producing animals in North America.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Clostridioides difficile in West Africa: a systematic review of the limited evidence and key knowledge gaps.Global epidemiology · 2026Article
- Comparative Relatedness ofAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An exploratory mixed methods study on shared decision-making and antibiotic prescribing for pet cats and dogs in Singapore veterinary clinics.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The VALUE of antibiotic stewardship for companion animals: Understanding appropriate antibiotic prescribing for pet cats and dogs in veterinary clinics in Singapore.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- The Role ofMicroorganisms · 2025Review
- Clinical Guidelines for Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Companion Animals.Advances in small animal care · 2024Article
- Zoonosis screening in Spanish immunocompromised children and their pets.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Characterization of the Gut Microbiome in Healthy Dogs and Dogs with Diabetes Mellitus.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Genomic Analysis ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Companion animals have been shown to carry Clostridioides difficile strains that are similar or identical to strains found in people, and a small number of studies have shown that pets carry genetically identical C. difficile isolates as their owners, suggesting inter-species transmission. However, the directionality of transmission is ultimately unknown, and the frequency with which animals acquire C. difficile following their owners' infection is unclear. The goal of this study was to assess how often pets belonging to people with C. difficile infection carry genetically related C. difficile isolates. We enrolled pet owners from two medical institutions (University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC)) who had diarrhoea with or without positive C. difficile assays and tested their faeces and their pets' faeces for C. difficile using both anaerobic culture and PCR assays. When microorganisms were obtained from both the owner and pet and had the same toxin profile or ribotype, isolates underwent genomic sequencing. Faecal samples were obtained from a total of 59 humans, 72 dogs and 9 cats, representing 47 complete households (i.e. where a sample was available from the owner and at least one pet). Of these, C. difficile was detected in 30 humans, 10 dogs and 0 cats. There were only two households where C. difficile was detected in both the owner and pet. In one of these households, the C. difficile isolates were of different toxin profiles/ribotypes (A+/B+ / RT 499 from the owner, A-/B- / RT PR22386 from the dog). In the other household, the isolates were genetically identical (one SNP difference). Interestingly, the dog from this household had recently received a course of antibiotics (cefpodoxime and metronidazole). Our findings suggest that inter-species transmission of C. difficile occurs infrequently in households with human C. difficile infections.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.